Petrophysics-101.

V-003 Aim Small, Miss Small The SPWLA Indonesia’s Series

CAPILLARITY IN ROCKS
Introduction
Figure 1. Dripping Water (https://www.shutterstock.com/video/search/water-tap).

Believe it or not, capillarity is not a rare phenomenon nor a

complex thing to understand. There is a big possibility that you “From the dripping water in your
have been seeing it in everyday life. From the dripping water in kitchen tap. When you try to shake
your kitchen tap (Figure 1). When you try shake the ketchup ketchup bottle to push the last
bottle to push the last drop of sauce. To why your tree in the drop of sauce. To why your tree in
backyard can get water from underground soil. The capillarity the backyard can get water from
force is the key to understand all of that. underground soil”

Interestingly, this process also plays a big part in geology,

especially in rock-fluid interaction. One of its importance is an
imbibition-drainage process and saturation-height function. The
first is responsible for what we know as hydrocarbon migration and production, while the second is why we
will always have a certain amount of water in the reservoir (Swirr), and a certain amount of oil/gas that will
never be produced (Sor, Sog).

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In this short bulletin, we will try to explain capillarity

forces in reservoir rock. Its characteristics, some factors
that affect it, the importance and the application of
capillarity data in the petrophysical analysis.

Rock-Fluid Interaction
Long story short, capillary force is a pressure that “pull” the
red liquid in the glass (Figure 2). This pressure is affected
by several factors, which are: density of the air and water
(red liquid), the pore throat radius (straw radius), and the
interfacial tension
between two liquids. “The smaller the pore
Analog to this, in the throat, the higher the
reservoir rock, the fluid is liquid saturation is”
a hydrocarbon, while the
straw is the pore throat (a
connected porosity). One
Figure 2. Capillary Forces
is coming as a property of the fluid, one is coming from the (http://www.ogniweb.com/mScienceProject2007.html).
property of the rock, A rock-fluid interaction.

Since the fluid inside our reservoir is either oil, gas, water, or
combination. Capillary pressure will depend on the
size of the pore throat, a function of rock properties.
The smaller the pore throat, the higher the liquid
saturation is. From Pc data, we will be able to
understand how much maximum fluid can be held
(saturation) by a certain size of pore throat radius.

Imbibition-Drainage
The principal data of
“The first (drainage) is
Capillary Pressure
analogue to migration
(Pc) only consists of
phase, the later (imbibition)
Figure 3. Imbibition-Drainage two data. Water
(http://petrowiki.org/Capillary_pressure). is analogue to production
saturation (in X-axis)
phase”
and Capillary
Pressure; Pc (in Y-
axis). The figure beside (Figure 3) is the example data from the oil-water
system. There are two sets of curves inside each graph, which we called as drainage and imbibition.

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Drainage is the decrease of water (wetting phase) and imbibition is the increase of water (wetting phase).
Simply, the drainage is when the hydrocarbon is migrating and its buoyancy force pushed water out of

Figure 4. Sw-Pc Relationship (www.DigitalFormation.com).

reservoir rock and filled the pore with hydrocarbon. On the other way, imbibition is when the hydrocarbon
is pushed away from pores. The first (drainage) is analog to the migration phase, the latter (imbibition) is
analog to the production phase.

Sw-Pc Relationship
In a bigger picture, there is a strong relationship between Pc data and the “Pc data can tell a lot of
change of water saturation throughout our reservoir compartment (Figure information about how our
4, an Oil-Water System example). Three zones are depending on the Pc- reservoir behave (rock-
Sw relationship data: fluid interaction), from top
to bottom reservoir”
1. Water Zone (the zone between zero Pc and OWC/ Pore entry
pressure). This is the zone that will produce only water. As based on
Pc, HC pressure needed to be higher than entry pressure to be able to
push water out of pores and filled pores with HC.

2. Transition Zone (the zone between Top Transition Zone, where the Pc-Sw curve is starting to reach
asymptote and OWC). This zone will be producing water and oil, a mix of fluids.

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3. Oil Zone (the zone above Top Transition Zone). Based on Pc data, it can be seen that there is no
decrease in Sw even though Pc increased. At this zone, all of the water is irreducible (the pressure, no
matter how high it is, simply will not be able to push water out of the pores). This zone will produce
only Oil.

Of course, the amount of water produced from the reservoir (Water Cut) will also depend on relative
permeability. Nonetheless, the Pc data can tell a
lot of information about how our reservoir
behaves (rock-fluid interaction), from top to
bottom reservoir. Where can we expect oil,
where we can expect oil and water (mix), and
where we can only expect water.

Swirr-Permeability
Relationship
From a bigger picture to a smaller scale such as
a reservoir. Pc data also plays a part in
understanding our reservoir.

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Based on Pc data, we know that the bigger the pore throat radius, the less water saturation irreducible is.

We also know that from the Kozeny-Carman experiment, that if the fluid pathway is analogous to the tube,
the bigger the radius of the tube, the higher the permeability is.
“The bigger the pore throat radius,
Assuming the pore throat radius is the same as effective
the higher the permeability, the less
porosity, we can conclude that the bigger the permeability, the
the Swirr (the higher the Shc that
bigger the pore throat radius. The bigger the pore throat radius,
can be produced)”
the
Figure 5. Sw-Pc-K Relationship (http://www.kgs.ku.edu/PRS/Poster/2002/2002-
9/P2-04.html).

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higher the permeability, the less the Swirr (the higher hydrocarbon that can be produced), as can be seen in
Figure 5. This is usually called a good rock-type (most left data on the chart). Where the properties of the
rock are so good, and the hydrocarbon that can be produced is high. All of these can be done using Pc data.

See Also:
- Muskat, M. 1949. Calculation of Initial Fluid Distributions in Oil Reservoirs. Trans. of AIME 179 (1): 119-127
- Yang, Shenglai., 2017. Fundamental of Petrophysics, Springer Mineralogy
- Darling, Toby., 2005. Well Logging and Formation Evaluation, Elsevier
- Cubitt & Wales., 2011. Practical Petrophysics, Elsevier.
- Tiab, Djebbar, and Donaldson, Eric., 2012. Theory and Practice of Measuring Reservoir Rock and Fluid Transport Properties.

***Disclaimer:
This is a mini bulletin of SPWLA Indonesia Chapter. This bi-weekly bulletin is intended to be a refresher in Petrophysics. Each topic
is selected randomly, could be the basic, advanced, or autobiography of petrophysicist. This series is meant to be a fun-simple way to
understand petrophysics. Aim Small, Miss Small!
About thefor
Targeted Author:
student, active petrophysicist, or anyone with curiosity and eagerness to know a bit about petrophysics”.
Aditya Arie Wijaya is an active petrophysicist. Born in Tenggarong, Kalimantan Timur.
Graduated from Geological Engineering of UGM and started as petrophysicist ever since.
Currently working as Well-Log Analyst/ Petrophysicist in Halliburton. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Also volunteered Head of Publications Division in SPWLA Indonesia Chapter in Jakarta, Indonesia.
He is an active consultant for Battery Percussion Marching Band UGM, as a part of his hobbies.
He can be reached at LinkedIn and Facebook, Or Email at aditya.ariewijaya@gmail.com.

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